The Full Circle Six (18 page)

Getting around the cage to get back out of the doors was a slight chore, but they managed to do it single file, both pulling and pushing the cart. Halfway down the walk ramp to the main platform, Drake saw that the ramp he had destroyed was filled with the metal men from the factory. The timers had expired, but the men were not even close to standing still. It looked as if they were forming a bridge over the gap that Drake had made by holding on to one another.

Now that he was on the outside, Drake noticed that the planet's huge sun was setting on the horizon. The time it would take for it to disappear coincided with the time left on the ground timer.

One of the metal men turned to look at Bruvold and Drake. It detached one of its own legs and pointed the top end of the thigh directly at Drake. With an amazing velocity, a small, spiked metal ball slammed into the side of the fuel cart, missing one of the barrels by a fraction. Neither man had to tell the other to hurry. The heat, however in combination with the weight of the fuel, made rapid progression implausible. A few moments later, the air around the two humans was filled with fast flying, spiked, metal balls.

At the end of the walk ramp, where it intersected with the main platform, Drake risked a look back amid the incoming fire. The metallic men had completed their bridge and were now advancing quickly toward the pair. As soon as they had cleared the short arch-ramp to the platform, Bruvold withdrew a shining green rod from his boot and tossed it nonchalantly over his shoulder.

Drake glanced quizzically at Bruvold, but his question was stopped before it escaped his lips as a warbled screech erupted. He turned and saw a green, hazy wall surround the main platform, once more slowing the metal men, and halting the torrent of missiles.

While they were advancing across the searing metal surface of the planet Foughden, the sun slipped its remaining curve of brilliant red light down beyond the rise in the distance. In the same instant, the trap door on the ground opened slowly, with a hiss.

Behind them, they could hear the distant clanking of metal marching, giving delayed chase. Out of the opening in the ground, metal was pouring upward and out, like an upside-down pitcher pouring water. They stopped for a second in surprise. A vague sense of vertigo plagued Bruvold. He had never seen metal water before, and it looked like it was falling upward, which raised even more confusion.

As the liquid fell to the ground, it separated and solidified into liquid men. They resembled men only in that they were vaguely man shaped. They had no faces, no eyes, and no distinguishing features of any kind. The hands did not even have fingers. They formed by the dozens, and the stomping from behind was getting much louder.

Drake and Bruvold continued by cutting a sweeping path, trying to go around the newly forming liquid men. They could both see that this tactic was futile, but stopping was not an option. Drake was beginning to get the feeling things had gotten much worse than he had imagined.

Before the fuel thieves could get another six meters, an army of liquid soldiers stood blocking their path. From behind, the army of solid metal soldiers was closing the distance more quickly.

Suddenly, Bruvold stopped. One of the liquid men shot forward, it's midsection elongating until it snapped like elastic straight toward Drake. Drake ducked and the attacker flew over his head and slammed into the foremost of the metal soldiers, welding it to the metal surface of the planet.

Bruvold turned, drawing his rapid-fire laser unit and firing. The next three advancing metal men were dropped, smoking and crackling with electricity. Drake grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to the ground just as another length of liquid passed overhead, incapacitating another two of the advancing attackers.

The security officer then belly crawled over to the fuel cart and ripped out from underneath, the weapon he was supposed to have returned to the storage area. Without strapping it on, he aimed at two liquid missiles already in the air, and released a stream of what looked like smoke. When the smoke contacted the liquid, the latter stopped moving and fell to the ground, shattering to pieces.

Understanding dawned in Drake's face. He took hold of the fuel cart and continued as fast as his depleted strength would allow, and Bruvold joined at his side, firing the smoke everywhere that he could see the metal water. A metal hand grabbed Drake from behind, and Drake pulled his weight to the ground, holding the arm and flipping the assailant onto the fuel barrels. He then pushed the metal man forward off of the cart and ran him over with it, severing the head.

They could now see the racecraft behind the liquid beings. The fuel hatch was open, and the hosed funnel was ready for receiving. Kraus and Sammy were standing side by side, firing lasers into the liquid, which only absorbed the attacks. It seemed as though all of Foughden was concentrated on Drake and Bruvold. The fuel was valuable, and they would not let it go without a fight.

Sammy watched in amazement as one of the liquid men facing away from him first froze solid, and then blew apart. Drake was coming full speed with the loaded fuel cart, Bruvold behind him, releasing smoke from his new toy in a sweeping motion. When he had visually confirmed that the refueling had started, he threw the weapon, harness and all toward the middle of the oncoming mob of mixed metal mayhem. Before it could fall down all the way, he hit it with a laser. The ensuing explosion was massive. It froze a majority of the liquid, and the solid metal army was down to about eight total.

Even working at the top of their game, Sammy and Kraus could not keep up with Drake. Panic was beginning to work its way into the equation. Bruvold madly fired his laser unit, obliterating anything that was frozen by the blast.

The heat that was stored by the metal ground was quickly melting some of the ice, and the liquid was re-shaping itself.

“Back on the craft!” even in Drake's voice, the panic could be evident. The crewmembers all rushed into the loading zone without bothering to bring the cart, or the few barrels of fuel that were left.

The second the hatch closed, a wet thud reverberated through the corridor. The four men were already sprinting for the navigational center. Freddie began power up as soon as the instruments indicated that the door to the loading zone was latched. Jaws had the shields charged.

Drake practically jumped into his chair and slammed the controls to manual. Taking off was slower than it should have been. The liquid had surrounded the rear thrusters and was trying to hold the racecraft to the ground. On the exterior, the spiked metal balls bounced off of the craft's shields and fell to the metal ground. With a burst of energy, from the rocket booster, they were finally free and rising into the atmosphere.

“I'm going to take this planet out,” Drake spoke quietly, but deadly.

“That's going to be tough, cap,” Jaws put in. “Scanners indicate that most of the population is underground, and that is a very thick ground. The middle of the planet is hollow. Research on the subject of Foughden shows that they are solar powered people.”

“Solar?” Bruvold asked innocently. “Is for blowing up sun?”

“Ridiculous,” stated Drake. “How would you propose we blow up a sun?”

“I am having very old bomb,” the security officer replied. “You is for trusting Bruvold. I will load, you will shoot, and sun will die. Then we are for leaving fast, or we are for dying with sun and metal water.”

“We could use a time disrupter to escape the blast, but are you sure you can blow up a sun? I mean, that seems like it would be one big bomb.” Freddie was more than a little skeptical of Bruvold possessing any such weapon.

“I will load, and you will shoot in thirty minute,” Bruvold retorted, pointing at the left cannon. He then marched out of the navigation quarters.

Kraus sat down at the left cannon while Drake navigated around the hated planet Foughden angling the left cannon toward the sun. Kraus was also having doubts about his friend's plan. He did trust Bruvold, but had never heard of anything that could be loaded into a craft cannon and destroy a sun.

“Jaws, find out how long it would take for an impact at this distance,” ordered Drake. “I want to know how much time we'll have to power down engines and detonate the time disrupter.”

Kraus's sensor indicated that Bruvold was now unloading the chamber for the left cannon. Four minutes later, it was loaded again. Drake had the perfect distance from the sun, according to Jaws.

“Fire left cannon,” Drake was calm and sure, brimming with confidence in his newly appointed crewmember. “Power down engines.”

What came out of the left cannon was like no artillery Drake had ever seen. It moved slowly, and was in the shape of a rocket. As it floated to its destination, it picked up speed, and Drake was poised to detonate the second of three time disrupters.

T
he usual jerking and whirling motion met the crew as the disrupter began to initialize. There was a feeling of being ripped away from everything. Colors flew about in a circular motion in the same manner as loose object flew about the interior of the navigation center. The sun's light was still visible, but warbled and sporadic. The missile had hit the sun, and it was imploding itself. Before the blast could reach halfway from the sun to the racecraft, the number thirteen disappeared.

One month earlier, Drake Judge and his crew in the Future Fuels racecraft, appeared in precisely the same spot. Through his holochart gazers, Drake could see the sun blazing brightly. He allowed a tiny measure of satisfaction to himself. It wasn't every race that a sun and entire planet was destroyed, even if it was slightly off course of the race.

Drake ordered the engines powered back up, and then took over manual control, once more confident that they had a good chance at victory. They had covered a good portion of the distance to the other side of the planet, so that they could get back on course, when Jaws broke the silence with a report.

“You're going to love this, sir. The number fifteen racecraft is directly in front of us. It has no idea that we're here.”

“He's not even on course, what is he doing over here?” Drake was already planning which method he would use to take the rookie out of the race.

“Check and load all cannons,” Drake said quietly, with a smirk. The foggers weren't going to help the arrogant amateur this time, and he was also plainly visible. Drake was not one to underestimate anyone, and it occurred to him that this kid was the only craft to make it out of that five craft battle unscathed. He took relish in his planning so that he could teach the kid how a real commander takes care of business.

“Ice cannon will be ready in four minute, cap. I thought it might be a good idea to start it up and have it ready to go, just in case,” Kraus reported proudly. “Shield de-stabilizer is charged and ready.”

Drake maintained his current distance behind the number fifteen. He planned to hit the fool with the special weapon shield de-stabilizer first, making the ice capsule fully effective in freezing the rear of his craft. Third, he would blast the number fifteen with all cannons at once.

“Ice cannon ready.” Kraus was itching to fire.

“Fire shield de-stabilizer.” Drake began speaking even before Kraus was finished reporting.

The number fifteen visibly slowed when the shields went down. The ice capsule was already flying through space and hit the stern of the racecraft, exploding in glacial blizzard of perfect cold. The following onslaught of cannon fire caused the rookie commander to halt all engines, signifying the number fifteen submission. It took under six minutes from start to finish, a new Judge record.

“A visual contact from the number fifteen. Should I put it on your screen?” Jaws announced.

Drake passed by the enemy racecraft a good deal, before giving a short, harsh “On.”

“A disappointing and extremely unexpected surprise. I will probably never figure out how you tracked me down this much off course. You truly are the greatest racer of your era. My stealth mechanism had only four minutes to charge (the reason I was off course to begin with), you ‘re calculations are superb. I will learn from this mishap and maybe even catch up to you again this time around. If I am correct, and often I am, you have not made all of your necessary planetary stops. I hope to greet you someday and if you accepted this contact know that I honor your racing.”
Only Drake read the contact and he told no one of its contents despite a couple inquiring glances apiece from Freddie and Jaws. It pleased him to have his superior skills revered by a young racer with so much cunning and resolve.

Over the next three months, the crew began to become more and more impatient with each other. The tempers were short, and everyone's patience was running thin. Priscilla had taken to diagnosing individuals with rare inflictions and even non-exist sting ailments, such as “space brain.” Freddie had stopped his incessant singing and almost never talked to anyone, including Priscilla. Sammy was barking orders and being unnecessarily verbally brutal to those lower in the chain of command. Bruvold challenged anyone he saw to a fight, and was virtually unmanageable. Juhaen had gone from being a soft-spoken, friendly type to furiously screaming at any who made any messes or mistakes in the consuming quarters. Jaws surprisingly started smiling more and was disgustingly sweet to his teammates, which made them all the more unsettled.

During an ordered inspection of Jaws' personal quarters, Bruvold, who had upset Drake by arguing over the best plan of surprise attacks, came upon a brochure for a planet along the path of the Full Circle Six. The planet's name was Purefection, and it was widely known, and advertised as a party planet. There was a slogan printed on the front page, saying “Smell our flowers, stay for hours!” He found no more contraband during the search, maybe because he was only thinking of the possibility of a much-needed planetary stop.

Before bringing the subject up to the commander, Bruvold approached Jaws about the brochure he had found. He wanted to learn about the planet, and since Jaws had the pamphlet, he was the best source to ask.

“What is for?” Bruvold asked Jaws, puzzled.

“I've never seen that before!” Jaws was nervous in admitting to possessing such an apparently questionable item. With the way things have been, he didn't know if it would just be one more thing to get him in trouble.

“Is in your room … is yours, no?” The craft security officer was beginning to become irritated.

“Some acquaintances of mine, from my home planet, gave it to me before I left. They said it was the greatest place in space. No one who visits the place ever wants to leave, because it's so fun and beautiful. Since I'm skeptical, I wanted to see the planet for myself. I just never worked up the courage to bring it up to the captain,” Jaws replied, fearfully.

“You are weak on inside and on outside … I am for keeping.” Bruvold ended the conversation by walking away, in his usual strut, head held high.

Bruvold shoved the paperwork into his jacket pocket and marched to the consuming quarters, which was the closest place to look for Drake. He wanted to report back that no contraband was found during an inspection. He also planned to suggest to his commander that the planet in the brochure was the perfect place to stop for supplies and much needed rest for the crew.

Before the security officer could get into the consummation quarters, an announcement came across the craft broadcast system.

“Every crew member report to the navigational center for an important announcement.”

Freddie was already in the navigation quarters when the announcement was made, but the other six team-members were all there and accounted for in less than three minutes. Sammy and Kraus were the first to make it back, and simultaneously, so they caught the end of Freddie's whining complaint, or so it sounded by the tone of his voice. “ … The perfect cause for celebration …”

“Since everyone is here, I'll tell you what this is all about,” started Drake. “We just received a contact from the league. It states that we are now running in first place, and it's dated a week ago.”

“I think we should have a party on our next planetary stop.” Freddie voiced his opinion despite his uneasiness about how Drake would react.

“Oh that's a splendid idea,” chimed Priscilla. “We could do with a rest,” said Kraus.

“I am for knowing good stop,” Bruvold proclaimed loudly.

“I don't think we should be stopping now that we're in first. We should go as long as possible!” Drake was not yelling, but was close to it. It had crossed his mind that he did not want to prove the rookie correct in assuming that he had yet to make another stop.

“Bruvold is winning many races … I am knowing … is good for stopping when crew is angry. When in space for more than year, is good for break.” Bruvold pulled out the pamphlet while he was talking. He handed it over to Drake when he was finished.

“What do you think, Sammy?” Drake was hoping that his closest friend would back him up to save face, but the rest of the crew was staring at Sammy so hopefully and expectantly, the ship and shield technician couldn't find it in his heart to do anything but agree that a rest would be a good idea.

Drake looked around at each member of his team, individually. What he saw in each of their faces was fatigue and stress. With a heavy sigh, he silently conceded that the best thing to do was to let them have their party for a few hours while the race-craft was being re-stocked and refueled.

“All right,” he finally approved. “I'll set course for this Purefection, but in return, after your celebration, every one of you will understand that this is our last stop until we pass all three benchmarks.”

The number thirteen was in a much more jovial mood during the week and a half that it took on the route to the planet. As it turned out, Jaws knew quite a bit more about the planet than he had let on to Bruvold during the inspection. By this time, the brochure about planet Purefection had been passed around and studied by every member of the crew. Jaws was also telling anyone who would listen everything he knew about the planet. So, by the time they arrived on the surface of their last planned planetary stop, the entire crew knew a little about the place, and their expectations were as great as the relief of this well deserved vacation.

The pamphlet explained that Purefection was the perfect planet for any species. With their “purefect” air and “irresistible” flowers, most visitors decided never to leave, the three-page advertisement informed each reader with enthusiasm. It was always a party on Purefection, with many varieties of amusement games, rides, sporting events, banquets, and much more. Free drinks, free native food, and free flowers for all were another benefit of visiting this paradise, according to the brochure.

Jaws, being a natural skeptic, and a rare enthusiast of anything at all, had collected other stories related to the “perfect planet.” His tales were a little more extravagant. Jaws had heard that nobody that had ever visited the planet had ever left. It wasn't a matter of force, but of free will. They just simply didn't want to leave. Another account that was passed along to the self-proclaimed supremely knowledgeable Zarocostas Jozwiak was the legend that stated the perfect planet put a curse on everything that embraced anything on the planet. The more one partook of all of the pleasures, the more cursed that one would become, until they were frozen in time for eternity on Purefection.

However, Jaws did not believe either of his stories or even the brochure about Purefection, nor for that matter, did anyone else. The only reason he had even kept the pamphlet is because he had forgotten all about it after tossing it aside. His nose was telling him that something was amiss, and to be alert.

Soon after the initial announcement, Bruvold decided to take a large bin of food to Uciferi so that he would not starve while they were out partying on a paradise planet. Bruvold did not care for the prisoner, but could not starve the guy out of hunger.

Drake was reluctant at first to leave the craft, locking himself in his quarters alone. In the end it was, of course, Sammy who finally convinced Drake to come see the place. Merely mentioning that corn was a part of the food did much of the convincing. Even though Drake was still against the whole stop in the first place, he did love corn, and never was able to turn it down, but he was also a little curious about whether or not it was stupid to believe in some relaxing, joyful planet that supposedly would fully recharge any individual of any species, along with full league-approved fuel supply and back up, spray off the thrusters and boosters, not to mention a fresh supply of Mandatory Meats. Drake noted all of this with mild interest at the time he had read it, but now was feeling a lot stronger on the subject.

Again, Drake got the sensation that something was guiding him toward all this, a rude infringement of destiny upon his natural decision making abilities. Nobody he knew, excluding Samelak Riordin knew how much Drake prided himself on that attribute.

The first thing everyone noticed as they were de-boarding the racecraft were the huge flowers everywhere they looked. Some were larger than Drake himself. Natives were evidently ecstatic to see racers from the renowned Full Circle Six. Drake was an icon here. Kindly, the Purefectioners offered beautiful flowers to each of the crew in turn, ending with Jaws, who sneezed uncontrollably and had to hold one hand while wrapping a yellow cloth around the base with the other hand.

Jaws looked reproachfully at the human native who had offered him the allergy-ridden plant. He had already chosen not to trust any of these people. His nose was never wrong when it came to instinctual survival.

“Oh my,” Priscilla exclaimed breathily “That is the most wonderful scent in the universe. It's so beautiful here. Everything is so amazing!”

“Wow, I can't believe this place,” laughed Sammy. “Just look at all of these intoxicating flowers! They've even started on the ship already! Ha ha, I think this first place team is going to keep its path to victory!”

Kraus and Bruvold wasted no time in finding the outdoor banquet table. They immediately dug in to any food they could find that they had never seen or tasted before. Then, they made a game of choosing one another's next dish to experiment. Freddie led Priscilla away to pick a bouquet of flowers. Sammy and Juhaen had found the amusement games and were trying their luck at a challenging affair in which they tried to break open large hanging fruits by throwing a fruit of the same size at it. There were numbers inside each of the hanging fruits. If one of them was lucky enough to find the number one inside the first broken fruit, then they would get a second throw to find the number two, and so on. There were ten numbers in all. The numbers also corresponded to how many prizes they were awarded from the prize wall. The highest number found in consecutive throws was the number of prizes to choose from.